I THOUGHT THE MAFIA BOSS HAD SAVED MY DAUGHTER FROM HIS FIANCÉE - UNTIL THE TRAITOR INSIDE HIS HOUSE STARTED WRITING MY DEATH SENTENCE

According to Elena, Marco kept his personal laptop and physical flash drives in the high-security security office on the third floor—a room accessible only by his biometric thumbprint and a six-digit rolling code.

"Why aren't you getting it yourself?" I had asked her in the cellar.

"Because my thumbprint won't bypass the master firewall on his private partition," Elena had replied. "Yours won't either. But you have something better."

"What?"

"You're the cleaning maid. Nobody pays attention to a woman pushing a mop bucket at three in the morning—not even the guards who are half-asleep on espresso and boredom."

Now, clad in a dark grey hoodie Elena had smuggled down from the staff laundry, I pushed my cleaning cart down the plush-carpeted hallway of the third floor. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. Every shadow looked like a guard; every creak of the old wooden floorboards sounded like a gunshot.

Just get the drive, I told myself. Get the drive, grab Lily from the nursery, and run.

I reached the heavy oak door of the security office.

A digital keypad glowed softly on the wall beside the handle. No physical lock. Just a high-tech biometric scanner.

I swallowed hard, stepping up to the door. Elena’s instructions echoed in my mind: Marco is arrogant. He keeps a manual override keycard hidden inside the hollow base of the indoor ficus plant in the hallway alcove ten feet away.

I crept down the hall, my sneakers sinking silently into the thick wool carpet. I knelt beside the massive potted ficus, plunging my hand deep into the dark, damp soil near the edge of the ceramic pot.

My fingers brushed against something hard and plastic.

I pulled it out—a black magnetic keycard with a strip of silver tape labeled SEC-00.

Got it.

I scurried back to the door, swiped the card through the side reader, and punched in the sequence Elena had given me.

Click.

The heavy steel bolt retracted.

I slipped inside the dark office, pulling the door shut behind me just as a sweep of heavy footsteps echoed down the far end of the hallway. I held my breath, pressing my back against the cold interior wall until the footsteps faded away.

When the silence returned, I flicked on the small flashlight app on the burner phone Elena had given me.

The beam swept across banks of monitors displaying live CCTV feeds of the mansion's perimeter, the wine cellars, the front gates, and the nursery.

My breath hitched when the camera view of the nursery flashed on the screen.

Lily was still asleep in her small cot, clutching her blue stuffed rabbit. But she wasn't alone.

Standing beside her cot was a tall figure in a dark tactical vest.